Joe Haldeman by Buying Time

Author:Buying Time [Time, Buying]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-12-14T21:51:12+00:00

BUYING TIME - Joe Haldeman

The swingby business would be simpler if Mars didn’t have an atmosphere. In fact, it’s denser than Earth’s at high altitudes, since the more massive planet has a steeper density gradient. It’s still just a few molecules here and there, but we’ll be cutting through at nearly a hundred kilometers per second. When I made a similar maneuver in the Bugatti, on the way to Ganymede, I noticed some vibration due to turbulence. And the Bugatti isn’t dropnose, which might or might not make a difference.

Two hours before swingby, I made a small course correction that would take us over the north pole; we wanted to bend our trajectory down under the plane of the ecliptic, to point toward Ceres. Mars was about the size of the full moon from Earth, and seemed to grow as we watched, though I knew that was an illusion.

“Should we have the space suits out? Even put them on?” Dallas asked. I had told him about the turbulence.

“I wouldn’t bother … there’s no real danger.” Actually, the reason I wouldn’t bother was because if something happened, that would be it. We’d be a loose collection of pieces spinning away from Mars at somewhere between 96 and 120 kilometers per second. Impossible to catch up with. I would just as soon not be in a space suit, waiting to run out of air.

As it turned out, the situation was not so clear-cut.

I kept Dallas busy by making sure all the hatches were battened down, litter secured, especially. We needed a short burn, a “kick,” at perimartian, and you wouldn’t want a plastic straw to come hurtling toward you at five gees.

I deliberately didn’t have us strap in too early, remembering my own trapped feeling, thirty years ago, as Mars loomed closer and closer. You’re going about twenty times as fast as instinct, or intuition, says you should be, since we’re accustomed to low Earth orbit. It feels like you’re going to crash.

“Two minutes,” I said. “Better strap up.” When Dallas was secure, I told the ship to initiate the attitude adjustment, which was larger than I’d expected. Mars swung and Dallas flinched.

The planet was getting bigger every second, no illusion. The polar cap came rolling over the horizon toward us. I asked for a ten-second countdown before the burn.

“One month,” Dallas said.

“What?”

“Today’s the fifteenth; it’s been exactly one month since Claudia’s party.” He reached over and stroked my arm. The machine started counting. I blinked back tears.

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